In Anticipation of Jat Protests, Social Media, Texting Barred In Bharatpur

Jaipur: With apprehension that in the wake of the agitation in Haryana, the Jat demand for reservation could pick up pace in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district, the administration has declared Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code and banned the use of social media there as precautionary measures.

Only voice calls on landlines and mobile phones have been allowed for the next 24 hours.

The order -- issued by the district collector today -- says the Jats of Bharatpur are likely to prepare for a violent agitation demanding inclusion in the list of the Other Backward Castes.

A bus was torched and a highway was blocked in a few villages in Bharatpur as Jat protestors gathered demanding reservation. The traffic on the highway between Agra and Jaipur on NH-11 was blocked just before Bharatpur city at Dehla.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has appealed for calm and despatched social welfare minister Arun Chaturvedi to Bharatpur to meet the protesting groups.

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In 1999, the state government gave Jats reservation under the Other Backward Castes category. But Jats from Dholpur and Bharatpur were excluded, since in these erstwhile princely states, they had been part of the ruling classes and could not be considered backward.

Last year, after an order from the high court, the Rajasthan government constituted a Backward Commission and an Economically Backward Commission to look into the demand of the Jats of Bharatpur and Dholpur that they be included in the list of Other Backward Castes.

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Sixteen people have died and more than 150 have been injured in the nine-day-long protests in Haryana, where curfew has been in place in four districts.